Railways to offer unreserved tickets in Odia language

Unreserved train tickets will be issued in Odia language apart from Hindi and English from the Utkal Divas this year, an official of the East Coast Railway (ECoR) said on Friday.

A decision has been taken to start this service from April 1. Utkal Divas is celebrated in Odisha in the memory of the formation of the state as a separate province on 1 April 1936.

Railways have prepared all station names of Indian Railways in Odia script which will now be implemented in 317 stations in Odisha for the stations under East Coast Railway, South Eastern Railway and South East Central Railway jurisdictions, said a statement.

It said the database of more than 8,000 station names in Odia Script has been prepared by ECoR with technical support from CRIS, Kolkata as a passenger-friendly initiative.

Steps have been taken to print the station name in Odia script to match with the vernacular name of the station as per the local language of that particular area of the country.

The train tickets having Odia script would be applicable for unreserved tickets bought manually from the Railway counters in Odisha, the statement said.

Earlier, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan requested Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to explore the option of printing rail tickets in the local vernacular language in Odia language as well.

--IANS

cd/prs